The BBC Celebrates Sir Wilfred Thesiger Published by Blog - On 02:09 // This post haved 0 коммент. //

Wilfred Thesiger in Ethiopia 1934 (Courtesy The BBC)

For historical buffs and admirers of adventurers/explorers, here's a BBC feature that will please you.

Sir Wilfred Thesiger took nearly 40,000 photographs during his eight decades of travels throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The BBC, in commemoration of his centenary of his birth, has featured an audio slideshow of his photographs.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) narrates his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins, while he Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. 

From an article 'Gentleman Thrillseeker 'in the Independent newspaper:

Since 1930 Thesiger had documented his journeys in photographs, diaries, and letters to his family. Many of his finest photographs were taken, after 1945, in Arabia and Iraq; he took thousands more, just as fine, in the mountains of Asia, Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania. Thesiger's photographs have long been regarded as works of art in their own right; they also preserve a unique and imperishable record of vanishing tribal societies.

Thesiger was an intriguing man...to say the least. There are plenty of articles and opinions pieces about him and his life.

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Evan Abramson: When The Water Ends Published by Blog - On 02:12 // This post haved 0 коммент. //

Ethiopia's government is building a new dam in the Omo river projected to be the largest hydropower project in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 50% of its electrical output has already been sold to neighboring countries, but it will reduce the water flow to the Omo River and threaten the lives of some 500,000-800,000 nomadic pastoralists.

Evan Abramson's When The Water Ends photo essay examines the impact of such a massive infrastructural on the lives of the Omo Valley tribes.

Evan's photographs were also used in a 16-minute video When the Water Ends produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm. It tells the story of the increasingly dire drought conditions facing parts of East Africa, and the eventuality of conflict.

Evan Abramson is a 32-year-old photographer and videographer based in New York, who spent two months in the region, living among the herding communities. His project focuses on four groups of pastoralists — the Turkana of Kenya and the Dassanech, Nyangatom, and Mursi of Ethiopia — who are among the more than two dozen tribes whose lives and culture depend on the waters of the Omo River and the body of water into which it flows, Lake Turkana.

Quite a number of photographers have photographed the tribal people of the Omo Valley, and I'm certain they, as well as many non-photographers, are lamenting the change that will befell the region.

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Paul Patrick: African Witches Published by Blog - On 01:59 // This post haved 0 коммент. //

Photo © Paul Patrick-All Rights Reserved

People in eastern, southern, and western Africa generally believe in witches, both male and female, and Paul Patrick, a Norwegian photojournalist, was able to document them in Ghana. He started traveling at the age of 16 in search of stories from Europe, India, Nepal, China, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Morocco.

Frenzy and hysteria about witches still grip the African mind, and witchcraft evokes fear, hatred and suspicion among Africans. Africans believe that any misfortune, whether accidents, deaths, diseases, infertility or child-birth difficulties, business failures to the male and female witches. Those accused of witchcraft are expelled from their homes, and forced to survive in the streets, in the bush, or in makeshift camps...and even killed.

You'll find the captions under each of Patrick's photographs in his gallery Witch Village are descriptive and informative...and provide background on the circumstances that caused for these women to be considered witches.

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Dan Bannister: East Africa Published by Blog - On 02:05 // This post haved 0 коммент. //

Photo © Dan Bannister -All Rights Reserved

Dan Bannister is a commercial, industrial and editorial photographer based in Calgary, Canada, who having joined my recent Bhutan: Land of the Druk Yul Photo~Expedition™ last year, recently traveled to East Africa to further expand his inventory of travel imagery. His new gallery of East Africa includes a broad spectrum of lifestyle, travel and editorial images.

His travel and editorial images appeared in The New York Times, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, and various in-flight magazines.

Dan also updated his website, and I encourage you to visit it as it now boasts large photographs and is truly magnificent.

On a personal level, I can say that Dan was one of the most enjoyable participants I've had the pleasure to travel with on my photo-expeditions.

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